Ringo, the same age as Bayard Sartoris, stands as both Bayard's slave and his constant childhood companion; although no text ever says so, the fact that he too calls Rosa Millard "Granny" suggests the possibility that he might be Bayard's half-brother. In this story, Ringo is Bayard's partner in the quest for vengeance for Granny's death. Along the way Uncle Buck regularly refers to him as "that nigger" rather than by name (99, 102), but Buck does not object when, in a surprising and unstereotypical scene, Ringo whips the white man Ab Snopes (after pointedly calling him "Mr." Ab Snopes, 109). And when the boys face Grumby, it is Ringo who first attacks him with a pocketknife.